Stage Distance: 103km
Total Distance: 1457km
Stage 9 was by far the worst day of my tour so far. It wouldn’t take much as so far I have enjoyed it immensely, even the hard days in the mountains. Today was however to be what could only be described as a disaster. There were three crashes today, one involving myself. The others saw one rider concussed and out for the day, the other out of the tour all-together with a broken collarbone. It was such a shame to see Shien leave, such a genuinely nice guy and my room-mate for two nights, he left still smiling despite his tour being over.
My own day started fairly slowly as we immediately hit first a Cat 2 climb, then the first of four Cat 1 climbs. Topping out over the Col de Mente I started the descent through the forest descent. Everything seemed to be going well, and I was as usual enjoying the descent with a bit of speed, something I had always felt natural and comfortable with. Hitting a straight section (fortunately) my front wheel started squirming, I had a puncture. Never good at the best of times it is much worse when descending at speed and even more so on the front wheel. In the split section of the accident as my wheel squirmed side to side I tried to gently apply the back brake. Alas it was too late as the tyre caught and flipped the front wheel out to the right, sending me crashing into the ground on my left and sliding down the tarmac. I came to a stop to the shouts of other riders warning others of a “rider down”. As they cam to a stop I picked myself up, cuts and scraped along my left elbow, leg, knee and hip, my shorts torn down the left side. More road rash, just what I needed. Still, I was lucky I was on a straight section and didn’t hit anything.
Pete arrived in the back van and checked me over. Before we got round to fixing my bike however we heard news of another accident further down the hill. Throwing my bike in the back we raced of down hill to find another rider sitting at the side of the road dazed and concussed but being tended by Sarah, one of the tour doctors. She was OK but needed looked after so Pete set about fixing my bike and Sarah tended my wounds in order that I could free up space in the van. I hated the fuss being made of me, I wasn’t in pain. I was obviously grateful, just hate being fussed over.
So off I set downhill again but wasn’t comfortable on the bike at all. Downhills no longer felt natural to me, I couldn’t get into a flow. Every noise, shake or wobble of the bike made me panic a little. As Phil later hinted at, my mind just wasn’t in the right place any more.
As I climbed the second Cat 1 climb of the day, Phil supported me all the way. I can’t tell you how appreciated that was. However I was getting slower and slower. Still, I made it over the 1569m Col de Peyresourde where we ate a quick lunch then headed off for yet another uncomfortable downhill, short flat then onto our third Cat 1.
I was by this point really struggling. My back was hurting in the ribs and shoulder. I had not noticed pain here before but it was definitely a result of the accident. Deep breathing was becoming difficult as as pulling on the bars. I was getting slower and slower. I had to stop twice to get a breather, then another couple of times I stopped to give up but rested and restarted. However after a few more corners I stopped for the last time and waited for Pete to catch me up in the back van, which had been following at a discrete distance. I was only about 2km from the third out of four summits and another rest break.
I was gutted to give up, it feels like such a failure. I was 65km short of the stage finish (85km short of our planned distance for the day).
I am very disappointed and unhappy at the moment.
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